A Preliminary Study on Owls of Visakhapatnam and Elemental Characterization of Owl's Feathers

Sanchari Biswas; Dr Y.AVASN Maruthi; Dr C.H Rama Krishna

Volume : III, Issue : VIII, August - 2014

A Preliminary Study on Owls of Visakhapatnam and Elemental Characterization of Owl's Feathers

Sanchari Biswas, Dr Y. Avasn Maruthi, Dr C. H Rama Krishna

Abstract :

The objective of this study was to carry out an ecological study of the Owls found in Visakhapatnam and screening of their feathers for any sort of elemental analysis. Visakhapatnam remains one of the few studied areas in this field although previous studies were carried out regarding Avifauna in 2009. Visakhapatnam is a city with a moderate climate zone containing the hills of Eastern Ghats that not only have caves and cavities but also supports a wide variety of vegetation types that is preferred by the Owls for their survival. But at the same time, urbanisation, deforestation, pollution and the port activities are increasing tremendously as a result of which the survival of these birds might be threatened and also depict the entry of toxicants into our environment. This was a preliminary level study but much more work remains to be done using owls as biomonitors of environmental contamination.